Prep Genrl Wrapping up the month of December

[BinWa]

I started getting back into prepping at the first of December, after most of the year off due to personal issues. Have been sick the last 2 weeks so it didn't give me many days out for weekly stocking up like I planned.

December totals:
home emergency envelope: $20.00
Added food:
5 cans chili
5 cans tuna
4 cans mandarin oranges
5 cans corn
5 cans green beans
Hope to feel/do better in January but at least I'm back to it

 

[SAPPHIRE]

not sure it's true but: inch by inch anything's a cinch...

with costs skyrocketing it's just sensible to put by some long term food.........we can't afford the pricey Mountain House type of foods, but lots of things age well......hope you are finding good buys in 2017

 

[BinWa]

Thank you Sapphire, this month has sure felt slow going!

 

[coloradohermit]

This is a good time to stock up on reduce for clearance holiday things and foods. Walnuts, choc chips, sugar, flour, etc were(and still are some places) affordable for baking season. Leftover hams and turkeys are marked down. Christmas candies, if you choose to stock candy, are 50% off at our Kroger. Nice cool weather accommodates canning in the quiet times after the holiday rush.

 

[BinWa]

Oh good idea coloradohermit I wasn't thinking about all of the clearance holiday markdowns.

 

[nomifyle]

Back when I retired at the end of '08, I took money out of my 401k to buy long term food. I bought from Safecastle, Emergency Essentials and the Mormans. All in #10 cans in cases. Then from Honeyville I bought 50# bags of wheat, corn and other things. I found a good price on paint cans by the case. I bought 2 gallon baggies and packed over 100 paint cans lined with two of the 2 gallon baggies with oxygen absorbers. That was 7 bor 8 years ago, peridiocally I check a can and it wooshes when I open it and every thing is fine. I bought untold pounds of basmatti rice and pasta and packed that in cans too with about 300#s of different kinds of beans and peas. I moved all of that from Slidell to a storage unit in Natchitoches, LA and then about 2 years ago I moved it all to a storage shed here at home. Most of the individual cans are in clear plastic bags. the ones that aren't in bags have rusted on the outside, but the contents are fine.

A little at a time adds up, even if you can't afford the already packed long term food, you can package your own in small batches. The Morman cases are reasonably priced and I'd buy a case here and a case there and it builds up. I never intend to open any of those already packaged cans unless the world goes south and when I go to be with Jesus, its up to my two sons to either hang onto the food or ditch it, I hope the choose wisely.

Judy

 

[prudentwatcher]

I buy a case of the Mormon food here and there, maybe twice a year. I might buy a couple of cans from Honeyville a year. I bought 10 cans from Emergency Essentials and paid less than $50 with shipping when they had their clearance sale last month. I can my own meat when there is a good deal---going to get boneless chicken breast at $1.38 a lb tomorrow. Haven't seen it that cheap in ages. I get cases of canned veggies (mainly green beans) when Dollar General puts them on sale for 4/$1 and I have coupons that make them free or nearly free. You have to watch closely, but the opportunities are there to get food cheaply and to store it deep. Hey, I like to eat and would like to continue to do so, no matter what happens with the world.

 

[BinWa]

Thank you SO much for the great tips ladies! I appreciate it very much and will look into those #10 cans on payday. I think there is a Mormon cannery place in Portland which is about an hour away so I could maybe go there and pick up myself.

 

[ReneeT]

BinWa, Augason Farms (www.augasonfarms.com) has multiple items available in #10 cans through Wal-Mart; and the prices are often cheaper through Wal-Mart than through Augason Farms itself. You can sometimes get free shipping at Wal-Mart by purchasing a certain $ amount, or by using ship-to-store (to your local store.) Some Wal-Marts carry this brand of food in store.

I have an attachment for my vacuum sealer that allows me to seal wide and regular mouth canning jars - that way I can buy in smaller amounts, vacuum seal in canning jars, then store away in a dark cupboard. For instance, we love tapioca pudding, so when I go to the Amish store, I alwaysl buy a bag of tapioca, use part of what I bought to fill a pint or quart jar depending on the size of bag purchased, vacuum seal the jar, date the lid, and tuck it away in a canning jar box marked 'Tapioca' in the moderate term storage area. It took me about a year, but I have a dozen pint jars of tapioca tucked away for hard times, plus a couple of quart jars in the current use pantry. At 1 tablespoon of tapioca per 1 cup milk in the pudding recipe, that's a LOT of tapioca pudding I do cocoa powder the same way as we go through a lot of it in the winter months making hot cocoa mix.

One extra can of something on every shopping trip adds up - and if that can was on sale, even better!

 

[Illini Warrior]

Thank you SO much for the great tips ladies! I appreciate it very much and will look into those #10 cans on payday. I think there is a Mormon cannery place in Portland which is about an hour away so I could maybe go there and pick up myself.

check into buying online and having it shipped - free shipping and you don't need an appointment ....

 

[BinWa]

Thank you..yes it would be much easier to actually have the items shipped. I have amazon prime so I should take advantage of that but have never shopped food items before. Walmart is only 10 miles from where I am so that would be easy & doable too for the #10 cans. ReneeT..I need to pull out my foodsaver and do that. With the baking and holiday markdowns that were mentioned here I could put quite a bit away.

 

[Taz]

Go to Amazon and type in survival foods. They have lots of foods including Mtn House. Their Keystone canned meats are great. Also you will find that some of the products are Kirkwood, which I think are Costco. With Prime it doesn't matter if your shipment is 100#, it is free!

 

[BinWa]

Thanks Taz!